


in your eyes i see the eyes of somebody i knew before

by chimerakit



Category: The Yogscast, flux buddies - Fandom
Genre: Gen, or in an au, this is supposed to take place either many years from present time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-10-06 01:43:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17336303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chimerakit/pseuds/chimerakit
Summary: There! There it was - footsteps. And she could tell that this wasn't a pig or sheep or anything like that. She had heard too many of those.This was a person.





	in your eyes i see the eyes of somebody i knew before

**Author's Note:**

> yes it's another fic from the pov of 5. no i don't have any braincells

Today it was, as always, silent in Specimen Five's home.

She lived at the center of an evergreen forest. Her small house, the first one she'd built, was good enough for her, so she had left it be. She was used to living in a cloning vat.

She was not, however, used to being alone.

Five stared up at the ceiling, sitting in her armchair, her mind drifting off on any tangent it picked up. For years she'd been without human contact, purposefully avoiding those strange friends of her boss' clone that seemed to be everywhere. Speaking of which, she hadn't seen the clone, either.

She kind of hoped they were just dead at this point.

Suddenly, Five's ears caught just a whisper of sound. The taint growths on the sides of her head pricked up a bit, like cat ears. She turned to and fro in a desperate attempt to catch that sound again.

There! There it was - footsteps. And she could tell that this wasn't a pig or sheep or anything like that. She had heard too many of those.

This was a person.

Five crept to the door as quietly as possible, opening it inch by inch. If that wasn't Boss out there, she was as good as dead.

Sure enough, those were footsteps - and it sounded like they were coming straight for her.

Five bristled and cast around for somewhere to hide. Aha! She could get into that tree over there with a well-placed jump. Five sprang up into the branches, willing the tree to stay quiet as the person approached.

A flicker of movement caught Five's eye. She squinted through the trees, trying desperately to make out a shape. Definitely human... not heading straight for her as originally thought...

Yellow and white...

Before she knew what she was doing, Five dropped from the tree, sprinting in the figure's direction. She felt a wide grin slowly spread across her face as she ran, pure joy bubbling up from her chest. The branches whipping against her face were completely intangible.

"BOSS!" Five cried, throwing the tree branches aside as she threw herself wholeheartedly into the clearing.

Lalnable whirled around at the sound of her voice, eyes wide, and she told herself a little too late that she probably should have tried a little harder not to give him a proper heart attack.

But after looking her up and down, a joyful grin plastered his face, reflecting what Five felt inside. He adjusted the goggles on his forehead and spoke.

"Nano?"

Five's heart fell through her body and hit the ground with a thud. Only now was she seeing him properly, seeing the countless differences. The green goggles. The clean jacket. The splashes of Ribena purple.

And yet... they were still so similar...

He seemed to be having the same slow realization. Five watched his face fall as he looked her over once more, probably noticing for the first time the inhuman eyes, the spikes of flux, the green flower.

They stared into each other's eyes for a long moment. Finally, Lalna set his jaw and decided to speak again.

"Well, this is awkward."

Five snorted. "Yeah, ya think?" She crossed her arms in what she hoped wasn't an obvious attempt to hide her nervousness.

What scared her the most was that, for once, this Lalna fellow didn't seem to feel the same. She wouldn't say she knew him, not by a long shot, but the one thing she remembered most about him were his spurts of nervous laughter that seemed to come out whenever her and the boss were around.

Yet neither a crooked grin nor a fearful glint in his eye seemed obvious today. He looked... different somehow, much older. Five hesitated. Had the boss gotten himself cloned _again?_

But no, that wasn't possible. Especially since this fella was all fluxed up. This was definitely the one.

Five was so lost in thought she had no time to react when Lalna whipped out a crossbow and pointed it at her face. "What do you want?" he demanded.

Five yelped, trying to find her footing in the land of the living again after he had just scared her half to death. "I-I'm just looking f-for my boss!" she squeaked, inwardly wincing at her obvious terror. "Lalnable! L-Lalnable Hector! I swear to w... whatever! Somethin'! I'm agnostic!"

Lalna nodded tightly, and Five felt a chill run up her spine when he still didn't lower his bow. "Yeah, I figured as much. And you yelling 'boss' did help tip me off." He frowned - well, frowned deeper. "I didn't expect you to be so... reckless, I guess. Even for you. What's going on?"

It took every atom in her body not to start wringing her hands from nervousness. She knew if she moved a muscle she'd be dead in a nanosecond. Ha, _nano_ second. Shut up, brain, this is serious.

"Well... I..." Five was not a great liar. She sighed. "I haven't, um, seen the boss in... years, I guess. I've just been hanging around here waiting for him to... show up?" She shrugged and added wryly, "Or for one of you two to murder me, whichever came first."

To her surprise, that was what got him to relax, although he still kept the bow at half-mast. She looked up at him and saw his stony façade finally broken. Although now his expression was unreadable.

"...Huh," Lalna murmured, after a long silence. "Guess that explains why we were so eager to see each other."

Five may have been an idiot, but she wasn't stupid. She quickly put two and two together. "...Is Nano missing too?" she asked cautiously, crossing her fingers in spirit that he wouldn't rip her face off for that.

Lalna grimaced. "Uh... 'Missing' is a bit of a strong word, I think."

Despite herself, Five snorted at that, feeling the tension ease between the both of them. Lalna finally lowered his crossbow, and Five didn't instantly take off running like she had silently sworn she would.

It was kind of scary how easy this was, how much he seemed to already know her, how much she seemed to know him. If Lalna wanted, he could dress like Lalnable and pretend to be him for hours and learn everything there was to know about his enemies before being found out.

But he didn't.

That was their job.

Five shook her head to dispel her thoughts and threw a wan smile to Lalna. "You tracking Nano's DNA or something?"

He titled his head at her, frowning. "...No? Why?"

"Ah, I was just thinking..." Five looked up at the sky, noticing for the first time that the sun was slowly setting. "It's kinda weird that we found each other before we found who we were looking for, don'tcha think?"

Lalna nodded, although his brow was still furrowed in thought. He started scratching the back of his neck and glanced at the setting sun. "Yeah... yeah..."

As Lalna had put it right before trying to murder her, this was awkward.

" _Well,_ " Five said, trying to move things along before they both got eaten by zombies trying to end this conversation, "If it's alright with you... I'm gonna head back to my house?"

She flinched when Lalna gripped his crossbow tighter, but to her surprise, he just nodded. His demeanor had changed significantly since the start of their meeting. It looked like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

"Alright," he responded. "Y'know... despite it all, I hope you find him."

Five gave him a small smile before turning and heading the way she had come.

"Oh, uh, Five?"

She turned back. Lalna looked just as uncomfortably aware as she was that this felt like some cliche movie ending, but he seemed to power through it.

"I, uh... I don't think you're a bad person."

Five stared at him, not really certain of how to respond. Finally, she jerked her chin up in an acknowledging nod. Then she took off running.

Unlike before, she could feel the branches whipping against her all too well. She ignored them, blinking sweat from her eyes and driving a storm through the forest towards her house.

Finally, she spotted the familiar wooden planks and skidded to a halt. She stood there for a moment, halted in the middle of a bush a few yards from home. The dark was tangible now, wrapping its cold arms around her and filling the air with uneasy restlessness. Then she crouched on her heels and swept away the pine needles from the stone below her.

Her face was expressionless as she reached down to touch the cool surface, chiseled smooth aside from the words she had messily etched months and months ago.

"Do you think he's six feet underground too?" she murmured, mostly to herself. The words made her chuckle mirthlessly. "An eye for an eye, I guess... Speaking of which, do you wanna know what your friend said to me?"

Specimen Five lay down on Nano's gravestone and looked at the stars.

"'I don't think you're a bad person'."


End file.
